Stories From the Plague Years

Stories From the Plague Years is the first fiction collection from award-winning fantasy author Michael Marano. Nine tales arranged in a haunting symphony that guides readers through a tour of the darkest landscapes of human existence.

Here, fury and hate grow so strong, they cannot be held within one man’s body, and manifest themselves to devastating effect. Cities contain second, unseen cities populated by the vengeful ghosts of those who died too soon. Countries fall to famine and war. But these are also the tales of love lasting beyond death, love existing beyond all hope, and friendships never forgotten. Within are the widely praised stories “Winter Requiem,” “The Siege,” and the controversial “Burden,” as well as two original novellas, including the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated “Displacement.”

Marano, acclaimed for his evocative voice, paints lush portraits both terrifying and tender, injecting even the darkest of fantasies with a punk rock sensibility and a touch of the humane. With Stories from the Plague Years, he presents snapshots of a time when our world collided with evil, sickness, and self-destruction, and left behind lasting scars on those who dared to survive.

“Juxtaposes scene of hauntingly perverse beauty with vignettes of stark and grotesque horror in this compelling and disturbing tale of occult warfare and transcendent faith.”—Library Journal

“Michael Marano is a writer’s writer, and Stories from the Plague Years is a haunting tour of Marano’s fierce imagination. This collection is the perfect combination of lush writing, memorable characters, and stories served raw.”—Tananarive Due, American Book-Award winning author of Blood Colony, The Living Blood and My Soul to Keep